McClatchy News­pa­pers

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/04/89688/commentary-haiti-reconfigured.html

By: Rep. Nancy Pelosi

Last month in Port-au-Prince, Pres­i­dent Rene Preval told our con­gres­sional del­e­ga­tion that Haiti needs to be “recon­fig­ured” not “reconstructed.”

He is right.

Even before the earth­quake, devel­op­ment in Haiti was on an unsus­tain­able course. Poor plan­ning, weak build­ing struc­ture, defor­esta­tion, soil ero­sion, and uneven pop­u­la­tion dis­tri­b­u­tion between urban and rural areas, were all chal­lenges for the Hait­ian government.

What we learned in Haiti is that the nation can start anew with an inno­v­a­tive approach to pro­mote eco­nomic growth and alle­vi­ate poverty in an envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able man­ner. Pres­i­dent Preval has the vision for a bet­ter future for Haiti but he needs help from the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity to imple­ment it.

We vis­ited Haiti on Feb. 12, which marked one month since the earth­quake struck. Declared a national day of mourn­ing, it became a day of unity, prayer, and reflec­tion for the Hait­ian peo­ple; a recog­ni­tion of all that was lost and a sign of their resilience and their com­mit­ment to rebuild.

It is in this con­text that the Hait­ian gov­ern­ment invited our bipar­ti­san, bicam­eral con­gres­sional del­e­ga­tion to visit Haiti to pay our respects to the nation’s fam­i­lies, to pledge our sup­port for their future, and to exam­ine the recov­ery efforts in advance of con­gres­sional con­sid­er­a­tion of long-term assis­tance for Haiti.

Our del­e­ga­tion observed a moment of silence at the Cathe­dral of Port-au-Prince on this national day of mourn­ing. The Cathe­dral was in ruins, but a large cross in front of the Cathe­dral remained unscathed — an undam­aged sym­bol of hope.

In the after­math of the earth­quake, the call for com­pas­sion, aid, and global part­ner­ship must be answered — by all of us who are called by our faith and our com­mon human­ity to help those in need. Scores of coun­tries and thou­sands of orga­ni­za­tions have worked hand-in-hand to ease the suf­fer­ing of the Hait­ian people.

Relief work­ers and doc­tors from across the globe and mil­i­tary per­son­nel from America’s shores are work­ing around-the-clock to dis­trib­ute food, water and med­ical sup­plies to the injured and the home­less. The per­sonal chal­lenges to Haiti’s chil­dren are espe­cially trou­bling. The phys­i­cal chal­lenges also remain great: we were told it would take 1,000 trucks 1,000 days to remove all of the rub­ble from Port-au-Prince.

Con­gress is com­mit­ted to help­ing Haiti recover from this tragedy. Con­gress has not only taken action to express con­do­lences and sol­i­dar­ity with the Hait­ian peo­ple, but also to incen­tivize char­i­ta­ble giv­ing for Haiti. In the com­ing weeks, Con­gress will con­sider a request from the Obama Admin­is­tra­tion to help the Hait­ian peo­ple by pro­vid­ing long-term assis­tance to strengthen the capac­ity of Haiti’s insti­tu­tions and help its lead­ers focus on sus­tain­able eco­nomic devel­op­ment, reduce the risk of dis­as­ter, and pre­pare for future emergencies.

Our actions will be part of a global effort aligned with the pri­or­i­ties of the Hait­ian gov­ern­ment and aimed at directly empow­er­ing the Hait­ian peo­ple to build a future that is bet­ter than the past. Strong account­abil­ity and trans­parency must rest at the cen­ter of this undertaking.

The moral case alone is rea­son to help Haiti, but it is also in our national inter­est. We have an urgent respon­si­bil­ity to help pro­vide a foun­da­tion for a sta­ble and more pros­per­ous neigh­bor. Sus­tained and con­struc­tive Amer­i­can lead­er­ship is essen­tial in this fight.

The United States and Haiti share a long his­tory that binds our peo­ple together. Hait­ian immi­grants, strength­ened by their Hait­ian her­itage, have thrived and con­tributed to the beau­ti­ful diver­sity of Amer­ica. They have graced us their artis­tic genius and entre­pre­neur­ial spirit.

The Amer­i­can peo­ple have echoed Pres­i­dent Obama’s clear mes­sage in the wake of the tragedy: “You will not be for­saken. You will not be for­got­ten.” This is imper­a­tive for the chil­dren of Haiti. It is imper­a­tive that we con­tinue to sup­port the Hait­ian peo­ple in the recon­fig­u­ra­tion of Haiti.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Nancy Pelosi, Demo­c­rat of San Fran­cisco, is Speaker of the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. She can be reached at her offi­cial Web site: www.house.gov/pelosi.